4 Pittsburgh Neighborhoods To Get Speed Humps Installed This Week
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Four Pittsburgh neighborhoods will be getting speed humps installed this week.
The City of Pittsburgh says roads in the Hill District, Squirrel Hill, Highland Park and Carrick will be the sites of new traffic calming projects that will begin during the week of Nov. 11.
As part of the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, the roads were chosen based on data about speed and volume collected in 2018.
After the speed humps are up, the city will once again collect data.
If the traffic calming project on Saline Street is any indication, it seems like the new speed humps will be effective in slowing down traffic.
Spend a few minutes watching the traffic on Saline Street as it rolls out of Squirrel Hill into Greenfield and you quickly realize some drivers are oblivious to the speed humps. But for the most part, Saline Street resident Richard Turnbull says drivers are reacting.
"They've slowed traffic, which is beneficial, and we seem to have less motorcycles at night," he said.
Mark Cohen says he was skeptical at first: "Actually I'm surprised. I wasn't happy about them putting them in, but now that they're in, it's not that bad."
Turnbull was worried about cars bottoming out on the humps and making a lot of noise. He says there has been noise but "it seems as if the reduction in traffic outweighs that."
Sandy Rim is a hump believer.
"I love them," she said. "I do think they are slowing down the traffic. I can get out of my driveway now, which I could never get out of."
On the handful of streets where humps have been installed to slow traffic down, the city is monitoring the result and posting it online.
"So people can see what the initial speed was that led us to use humps and the change in speed has been since their installation," says Office of Mobility and Infrastructure Director Karina Ricks.
Ricks says humps are one of the tools the city is using to slow traffic down. They are deploying curb extensions that narrow the lanes and pedestrian islands.
These are the roads that will be receiving speed humps this week, as well as any applicable detours:
- Webster Avenue from Orion Street to Lisbon Street in the Hill District -- vehicles will be detoured to Herron Avenue and only first responders and bicyclists will be allowed to use the closed portion
- Beechwood Boulevard from South Dallas Avenue to Forest Glen Road in the Squirrel Hill South neighborhood -- two-way traffic will be maintained during work
- Heberton Avenue from Wellesley Avenue to Stanton Avenue in Highland Park -- two-way traffic will be maintained during work
- Spokane Street from Parkfield Street to Sinton Avenue in Carrick -- vehicles will be detoured to Brownsville Road or Lucina Avenue and only first responders and bicyclists will be allowed to use the closed portion
Work is expected to take one to two days. The work will begin at 7 a.m. and last until 5 p.m.
Signs letting drivers know about the approaching speed humps will be posted.
While Ricks says a lot of streets might like humps with Pittsburgh's topography, that's just not possible.
"Some streets, even though we observe speeding, the streets are too steep, too narrow, they have to many twists and turns on them," she says.
Ricks says the speed limit on Pittsburgh streets is 25 mph. She says few drivers actually observe that limit which is what makes "traffic calming" necessary.
For more information, you can visit the city's traffic calming project website.